The short answer
- Forex is a dealer network open 24 hours on weekdays; stocks trade on regulated exchanges in set hours; crypto trades nonstop on many separate platforms.
- Who holds your assets changes the risk: protected broker accounts for shares, the platform's own wallets for most crypto.
- Leverage and investor protection are tightly limited in regulated forex and stock markets and far looser in much of crypto.
What is a financial market, in one line?
Financial markets explained in a single sentence: they are systems, mostly electronic now, that let people who want to buy something meet people who want to sell it, at a price both accept.
What changes from one market to the next is everything around that meeting: the rules, the opening hours, who stands in the middle and who holds the asset afterwards. Those details decide what can go wrong, which is why a beginner who moves from crypto to forex, or from shares to crypto, often gets caught out by habits that worked fine in the old market.
This page compares the three markets our readers ask about most: currencies, shares and crypto-assets.
How do forex, stocks and crypto compare at a glance?
| Forex | Stocks | Crypto | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What trades | Currency pairs, such as EUR/USD | Shares in listed companies | Coins and tokens, such as BTC and USDT |
| Where | Network of banks and dealers, no single exchange | Regulated exchanges such as NYSE or LSE | Hundreds of independent platforms, plus on-chain |
| Hours | 24 hours, Sunday to Friday | Weekday sessions | Every hour of every day |
| Retail leverage cap (UK/EU CFDs) | 30:1 on major pairs | 5:1 on individual shares | 2:1, and crypto derivatives banned for UK retail |
Who actually sets the price?
Buyers and sellers do, but the route they take differs: a central order book for shares, competing dealer quotes for forex, and one order book per platform for crypto.
On a stock exchange, orders from many brokers meet in the exchange's order book, and the price you see is the last level at which a buyer and a seller agreed. Forex has no central book. Large banks and dealers quote prices to each other and to brokers, and the rate on your screen is your provider's version of that wholesale price, with a spread added.
Crypto is fragmented. Each platform has its own order book, so one coin can show slightly different prices in different places at the same moment. Traders who buy where it is cheap and sell where it is dear keep those gaps small, but they widen when markets move fast.
When can you trade each one?
Crypto: always. Forex: from Sunday 17:00 to Friday 17:00 New York time. Shares: weekday sessions set by each exchange.
New York's main session runs 09:30 to 16:00 local time, London's 08:00 to 16:30, Tokyo's 09:00 to 15:30 with a lunch break. When an exchange is shut, its shares mostly stop moving. If big news breaks overnight or at a weekend, prices can open well away from the previous close, a jump called a gap. Crypto has no gaps of this kind because it never closes, but it can move just as sharply at 3 a.m. on a Sunday. Our forex session guide maps the currency day, and the homepage board shows what is open now.
Who holds your assets, and who protects you?
With a regulated stock broker, your shares are ring-fenced from the firm's own money. On most crypto platforms, your coins sit in the platform's wallets and your protection depends on that firm alone.
Licensed brokers in major markets must keep client assets separate, report to a regulator and, in many countries, belong to a compensation scheme that covers some losses if the firm collapses. Forex and CFD providers must segregate client money in the same way, although what you hold is a contract with the provider rather than the currency itself.
Crypto is different. When you leave coins on a platform, you usually hold a claim on that firm. If it is hacked, freezes withdrawals or fails, you join a queue of creditors. You can move coins to a wallet you control, which removes the platform risk but makes you responsible for keeping your keys safe. See how crypto works for the details.
Where do USDT and Bitcoin fit in?
Bitcoin is the original crypto-asset, with a fixed supply schedule and no issuer. USDT is a stablecoin: a token issued by a company that aims to hold its value at one US dollar. On crypto platforms USDT plays the part that dollars play in forex, as the currency most coins are priced in. That makes it the bridge between the two worlds, and the reason many forex terms, such as base and quote currency, carry straight over. Read what Bitcoin is and what USDT is.
What moves prices across all three markets?
- Interest rates: central bank decisions shift currencies directly and change how attractive shares and risky assets look.
- Risk appetite: in calm periods money flows towards shares and crypto; in a scare it tends to flow towards the dollar, government bonds and cash.
- News and data: inflation, jobs figures and company earnings arrive on published calendars; crypto adds regulatory news and events on individual networks.
- Liquidity: thin markets, such as small coins or quiet trading hours, move further on less money.
What should a beginner take from this?
Before moving money into any market, answer three questions: who holds the asset, what happens if that firm fails, and how much you can lose if the price moves against you. The answers differ sharply between a regulated share account and an offshore crypto platform with 100:1 leverage. Next, see forex, stocks and crypto one at a time.
Quick follow-ups
Which market is best for a complete beginner?
None is automatically best. Each carries different risks: currency trading is usually leveraged, single shares can fall sharply, and crypto can swing by large amounts in hours. Understanding custody, costs and position size matters more than the choice of market.
Why do some markets close at weekends and others do not?
Stock exchanges are organisations with set trading sessions. Forex follows the working week of the banks that make up the market. Crypto networks run on computers that never stop, so platforms trade around the clock.
Is a crypto platform regulated like a stock broker?
Sometimes, and increasingly so, but protections vary widely by country. Many crypto platforms still offer nothing like the client asset rules and compensation schemes that cover regulated stock brokers.
Sources
- UK Financial Conduct Authority, CFD leverage limits and ban on crypto-derivatives for retail consumers
- European Securities and Markets Authority, product intervention measures on CFDs
- NYSE, London Stock Exchange and Japan Exchange Group, published trading hours